Striving to be the best

When I was young my parents introduced me to the world of Disney. I remember the first video I ever watched was Mickey's Steam Boat. In the video Mickey is whistling the most catchy tune that I can still hum to this day. When I got a little older I became fascinated on how the music, and the sound was created. My uncle (who worked as a Production Designer for Disney) saw me watching loops of old Disney clips and later sent me a book titled "Demystifying Disney. This book basically revealed everything behind the scenes in Disney animation. The chapter that fascinated me the most was about this guy Doc Kane who works with Mixing all the sounds for animation. His name is Doc Kane but most just call him Doc. With over 300 projects under his belt and a slew of awards and nominations, including four Academy Award nominations, Doc has one of the longest and most impressive resumes in the sound business. Re-recording for over 35 years, Doc has worked with hundreds of talented actors including Tom Cruise, Ellen DeGeneres, Johnny Depp, Brad Pitt and Robin Williams to name a few. He is also the trusted ADR mixer for dozens of legendary filmmakers such as: Tim Burton, James Cameron, Clint Eastwood and Taylor Hackford. Never one to toot his own horn, Doc is known as one of the best in the industry, his name alone drumming up praise and admiration from his colleagues and clients alike. Doc talked about automated dialogue replacement or ADR which basically means you take what is being said by these actors and transform it into what the character says in the film. Doc talked about when he was younger he used to take a boom mic and a Nagra recording device and record different ambiance's. And this fascinated me that you could literally record anything and through sound make people believe that your actually there. I guess this made me realize how lucky I am to be in a place where I can play around with all different types of audio equipment. And for that I am extremely grateful for what I have, and what I want to be

Use of wide angle distortion in Fear and Loathing

This past weekend, I watched one of my favorite films of all time, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. I always noticed that this film was disorienting to watch, but I never understood how they got this effect until I started taking film classes. I've learned that using an extreme wide angle lens creates this effect. The subject in the foreground looks very large and up close, while the background looks tiny and far away. This fit with the theme of the movie since the protagonists are always getting high on some type of drug, or tripping on something. They also tilted the camera slightly, creating an even more uneasy feeling. This got you into the mind state of the characters so the viewer can grasp what they're going through mentally. 

There is also a clear use of color gels while filming, which set the mood for certain scenes. This film definitely could have been done very crazily since most of it is hallucinations, but it isn't nauseating at all. Although plot wise, there isn't too much of a climax or excitement, it definitely engages you with the cinematography and characters. 

From Good-BAD

There are movies today that most people find entertaining upon leaving the theatre. They leave the theatre satisfied with the overall quality of the film itself, and feel they spent their money well on this film. However, when the second, third, fourth etc. movie comes out, they spend more money to go see the sequels and leave the theatre having a different opinion about the film. From my experience, I can agree that most sequels that come out ruin the reputation of the first film. Such films draw attention away from the films and tend to lose more Box Office money. Here below are three of the many worst sequels to movies that I found repulsive to watch.

After watching the first Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl I was very intrigued with the film and it drew me back in to watch the second Pirate movie "Dead Man's Chest. After this second movie, they got worse and worse to the point where I walked out of "Stranger Tides," the fourth one. The Curse of the Black Pearl had a total Gross of $305, 413,918 with Dead Man's Chest topping that at $423,315,812. After the second film the Total Gross decreased to $309 million to $241 Million. 

I saw Jaws when I was little and it scared the living s%^t out of me. I feared water for months and months. However, when i saw the sequels to Jaws, I was more afraid of NOT going into the water. These sequels in my opinion grabbed no interest in me. While the original Jaws had a Total Gross of $260 million, the sequels didn't make nearly as much dropping to $77Million to $45 million to $20million.

When I saw the Matrix I was entertained and I felt I spent my money's worth on this movie. However, I felt the sequels were absolutely horrible. I had no interest in these movies and it drew me away from further Keanu Reeves' movies. While the first movie made a Total Gross of $171 million, the second movie received more ($281 million) while the third movie slumped down to to $139 million. 

I could go on and on but this would take up a large portion of the post. I still love many movies, but sometimes I feel some sequels aren't necessary to a film.